The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connectors that provide an interconnection between circuit boards.
Electrical systems, such as those used in networking and telecommunication systems, utilize connectors to interconnect electrical components and route power through the system. The electrical connectors are mounted to circuit boards, such as motherboards, daughtercards, backplanes, line cards, switch cards and the like. In conventional systems, line and switch cards are connected to backplanes using midplane circuit boards. The midplane circuit boards include header connectors on both sides of the midplane circuit board, such header connectors being mated to receptacle connectors on the daughter cards that plug into the midplane. Midplanes add cost and additional electrical routing complexity to systems. Some known systems eliminate the need for the midplane circuit boards by using direct plugging of electrical connectors on the daughter cards on one side of the system to the daughter cards on the other side of the system. The daughter cards on opposite sides of the system are typically orthogonal to each other (for example, the daughter cards on the front side are horizontal while the daughter cards on the rear side are vertical, or vice versa), which makes connector design difficult.
Furthermore, system demands are increasing. For example, some systems require power connectors to transmit power between the circuit boards. However, due to the arrangement of the circuit boards in orthogonal orientations, placement of the connectors, and transmission of power, is difficult. For example, separate power connectors are provided and mating of such power connectors is difficult due to the relative orientations of the circuit boards. Further, the routing of power on a circuit board can be difficult. Significant space must be reserved for power to be routed through power connectors to various components located in the system.
A need remains for an electrical connector system that provides power and data signal transmission between orthogonal circuit boards; and can reduce the space requirements needed for routing power on a circuit board.